Martin "stavn" Lund, a member of Astralis, shared his thoughts on his team's defeat to G2 in the group stage of IEM Cologne 2024 in an interview with HLTV.org. The Danish player mentioned that he and his teammates sometimes stuck to their game plan.
"On Dust2, we were honestly just destroyed. It was our map, and we thought it would punish our opponent, but in reality, we lost the pistol round, and that's how it went. In the first few rounds, I didn’t feel like we were following our game plan, and there was tension during the match. If you want to play a good series, you have to stay calm and enjoy the game, and I don't think anyone managed that. Yes, we were simply crushed."
Stavn also discussed Astralis's goals for the remainder of the season, noting that the team still has enough time to prepare for the Major.
"Right now, it's tough, but we just need to look ahead. Cologne is an important tournament, but the Major is, of course, the most important. It's the goal for every team and our main objective as well. So now we have enough time to train and figure out what needs to be fixed. We just need to get back to planning, as they say."
Astralis finished in 9th-12th place at IEM Cologne 2024, earning $16,000 in prize money. In the first round of the group stage, the team defeated 9z but lost to NAVI in the semi-finals. G2 defeated them with a 1-2 scoreline.